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95.

97. Buildings are one of the largest consumers of natural resources. In the United States., buildings account for 39% of all CO2 emissions.

98. According to the Department of Energy, the construction market accounts for 14.2% of the $10 trillion U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

99. The green building products market is projected to be worth $30-$40 billion annually by 2010.

100.The three largest segments for nonresidential green building construction are office, education and health care. These segments will account for more than 80 percent of total nonresidential green construction in 2008.

103. consists of a “checklist” of standards with d available for specific project types.

104.The LEED rating system addresses six major areas: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process.

105. prerequisites and credits in the six categories.

106.There are typically four levels of LEED certification: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

107.Professionals such as architects and engineers can become LEED accredited by taking a professional examination.

108.There are a number of other green certification processes and programs such as the National Association of Home builders' (NAHB) Model Green Home Building Guidelines.

109. A non-profit entity known as the Green Building Initiative has also created a program known as Green Globes, which is a green buildingguidance and                                                                                                                                                               assessment program using software tools and a rating and certification system covering the categories of energy, indoor environment, site impact, water, resources, emissions, and project/environmental management.

110.Fresh water is a scarce and limited resource. Of all the water in the world, about 97% is seawater, 2% is polar ice and only a very small 1% is fresh water. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating systemifferent versions of the rating systemThe different LEED versions have varied scoring systems which involve both 

111.Buildings in the United States consume 5 billion gallons of potable water per day just through flushing toilets.

112.Buildings can obtain a 20% - 30% reduction in potable water usage by using low volume showerheads, low flow toilets, water efficient landscaping and the use of recycled greywater for irrigation.

113. This amounts to over 130,000 gallons of water per household, per year.

A typical household in the United States uses 363 gallons of potable water per day. 

114.Indoor water use accounts for 70 gallons per person per day, or over 25, 000 gallons per person, per year.

115. Clean water shortages occur because of overbuilding, drought, contaminated  water sources or damage to water pipes.

CHAPTER SIX - WIND POWER

116.By installing more efficient water fixtures and regularly checking for leaks, households can reduce daily per capita water use by about 35% to about 45 gallons per day.

117.If all U.S. households installed water saving features, water use would decrease by 35%, saving an estimated 5.4 billion gallons per day. This would result in dollar volume savings of $11.3 million per day or more than $4 billion per year. 118.At the end of 2007, wind power produced just over 1% of world-wide electricity use. In 2007 it accounted for approximately 19% of electricity production in Denmark, 9% in Spain and Portugal, and 6% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland.

119.Globally, wind power generation increased more than fivefold between 2000 and 2007.

120.Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions when it displaces fossil-fuel-derived electricity.

121.By networking wind farms, the issue of wind's intermittence is eliminated. Linking wind farms reduces the effect of windless days at individual sites and eliminates the chance of a windless hour during the year.

122.In 2007, the United States added 5.2 gW of new wind installations, more than double its installations for 2006. The new wind projects account for about 30% of the entire new power-producing capacity added nationally in 2007.

123.Total installed wind capacity in the United States at the end of 2007 reached 16.8 gW.

124.The European Commission set a target of 40,000 megawatts (4gW) by 2010, and met that goal five years early, largely due to Germany’s installation of wind power.

125.Germany has more wind capacity installed than any other country in the world.

126.Germany has a population of approximately 82 million and has installed wind capacity of approximately 19 gW.

127.The United States has a population of approximately 300 million and has installed wind capacity of approximately 16.8 gW.

128.China added 3.4 GW to its total wind capacity in 2007, and amount that was 154% higher than the previous year.

129.China’s new wind capacity in 2006 grew by 167% over 2005.

130.By 2020, China plans to have at least 30 gigawatts of wind power capacity, but it's been suggested that with sufficient motivation they may be capable of generating 170 gigawatts by that time.

131.China is the largest producer of wind turbine generators.

132.Spain added 3.5 gW of wind power to its total capacity in 2007.

133.When the wind industry first began to develop in California in the early 1980s, wind-generated electricity cost 38¢ per kilowatt-hour. Since then it has dropped to between 4¢ and 6¢ per kilowatt-hour, on parity with both coal and nuclear but without the environmental problems.

134.It has been estimated that by 2020, many European wind farms will be generating electricity at 2¢ per kilowatt-hour, making it cheaper than all other sources of electricity.

135.In the United States, wind power generation grew 27% in 2005, 26% in 2006 and 45% in 2007.

136.Way back in 1991, even before technological advances in wind turbines, the Department of Energy stated that three wind-rich states (North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas) had enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy all of America's electricity needs.

CHAPTER SEVEN – SOLAR POWER

137. The largest source of energy emanates from the sun. Radiant energy from the sun at the orbit of the Earth is 1,372 watts per square meter. A total of 343 watts of solar energy per square meter over the surface of the planet at the top of the atmosphere is the result. Thirty per cent (30%) of the 343 watts is reflected back out into space, with the rest being absorbed. This energy is free and continuous.

138. Industry commentators have stated that the energy absorbed by the earth amounts to 970 trillion kWh of energy every day.

139. The fastest growing segment of solar energy is photovoltaics (PV), a process where photons of light are converted into electricity in a semiconductor.

140. Solar power has grown about 25% per annum for the past 15 years.

141. Growth in solar power has been about 30% for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007.

142. The growth rate of installed PV in the United States in 2006 was 33% above 2005, and the worldwide increase for that time period was 50%.

143. The four largest producers of PV cells are Germany, Japan, China and the United States. China passed the United States in 2006.

144. The solar hot water systems and solar electricity systems of the 1970s have undergone thirty years of radical improvement, and higher efficiencies, lower costs and greater durability have arrived.

145. Germany is by far the biggest proponent of solar power, primarily due to government incentives. Consequently, Germany has been consuming over onehalf of the world supply of solar panels, with 960 mW of new installations in 2006, or 55% of the world’s installations.

146. Government incentives in Germany require that utilities pay producers of solar power for power that they put back into the grid. Utilities must pay more to the solar power producers for their power than customers pay to the utility for grid power.

147. While the government incentives in Germany appear to be excessive, they actually help the local utilities by reducing the strain on the grid, and keep the utilities from having to invest millions in new power plants.

148. Japan, the world’s largest exporter of solar technology, reports that production costs of PV are reducing by eight percent (8%) per year.

149. California reports that its costs of PV production are reducing by five percent (5%) per year.

150. Industry analysts predict that the cost of PV production will decrease by 40% by 2010.

151. Traditionally, PV cells have been made from silicon. Recent development involving thin film solar cells does not require silicon as an ingredient, which creates the potential for production at much lower costs.

152. The minimum profitable performance level for silicon PV cells is approximately 14% efficiency. In the 1990s, PV cells had an efficiency level of 12 to 15%.

Today, those levels are 14 % to 24% and are increasing. Recently developed PV cells have achieved efficiencies of up to 40%.

153. An aggressive plan was unveiled in Scientific American in January 2008, which could provide 69% of all electricity in the U.S. and 35% of total energy including the transportation section by 2050.

154. The plan involves creation of a new power supply system, as well as transmission and storage, based in the Southwest with power distributed across the entire U.S.

155. Implementation of this plan would eliminate 300 coal fired and 300 natural gas fired power plants.

156.Greenhouse gas emission as a result of this plan would be reduced to 62% lower than levels existing in 2005.

157. The technology exists today to implement this plan, it is not dependent upon further technological developments.

158. The cost of this plan is less than the tax subsidies that wer paid for th U.S.telecommunications structure over the pat 35 years.

159. On a comparative basis, the cost of implementation of this plan would be about 15% of the total cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

160. The U.S. spends about $12 billion plan would cost $10 billion the way we have funded the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we could pay for the system in less than three years.

161. The plan would create millions of jobs and stimulate the economy. per month in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thisper year for about 40 years. If we funded this system 

CHAPTER EIGHT - GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

162.Along with solar, another green energy source is geothermal power from the earth.

163.Geothermal power is derived from the heat of the earth, which is used to create electricity.

164.To create geothermal energy, typically two holes are drilled into the ground and water is injected into one hole and harvested out the other as steam. The steam is then used to turn a turbine which creates electricity.

165.Although geothermal power can be generated almost anywhere on the earth, in the United States most of the geothermal plants are located in the western states.

166.Geothermal energy has been used in the United States since the 1920s, but began a resurgence in the 1960s.

167.There is enough geothermal energy available to produce all of the electricity needs of the United States.

168.The typical geothermal power plant operates at about 90% efficiency, which exceeds that of all other power plants using different sources.

169.A geothermal power plant can generate electricity for about five cents ($.05) perkWh.

170.The downside is that geothermal plants are expensive to build, and financing for these plants is difficult to obtain.

171.Installed geothermal capacity in the United States in 2007 was approximately 2.8gigawatts, with another 2.5 gigawatts under development in sites in California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and other western states.

172.The United States obtains about 1/3 of 1% of its electricity from geothermal power plants in five states.

173.The outlook for geothermal power in the United States has brightened since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 created a production tax credit.

174.China, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Italy and other countries have begun to build geothermal power plants in recent years, although the United States remains the world’s largest producer of geothermal energy.

CHAPTER NINE - TRANSPORTATION

Cars, Trucks and Trains

175.There are approximately 210 million cars in the U.S.

176.The useful life of an automobile in the U.S. is 17 years.

177.Transportation accounted for 33% of oil consumption in the U.S. in 1971 and over 60% today.

178.Passenger cars, SUVs, light trucks and minivans (“light duty vehicles”) account for over 45% of the U.S. transportation sector’s oil consumption.

179.The International Energy Agency predicts that light duty vehicles will account for an increase in global oil to 32 million barrels per day in 2030.

180.The International Energy Agency projections for light duty vehicles assumes average fuel efficiency of 25 mpg in 2030.

181.If average fuel efficiency for light duty vehicles were 40 mpg, the global oil demand be 20 million barrels per day, not 32 million barrels per day in 2030.

182.If average fuel efficiency for light duty vehicles were 60 mpg, the global oil demand would be 13.4 million barrels per day, not 32 million barrels per day in 2030. This would be possible with improved hybrid technology.

183.Road transport, which includes light duty vehicles, medium and heavy trucks, buses and two and three wheel vehicles, accounted for 25% of global oilconsumption in 1971 versus 40% in 2002, and was responsible for 2/3 of the oil consumption between those years.

184.If government and commercial vehicle fleets, followed eventually by the mass market, would acquire hybrid vehicles and help work on greater efficiencies, some industry analysts predict that oil consumption could be reduced from 21 million barrels per day to 16 million barrels per day by 2030 in the U.S.

185. There are approximately 1.4 million buses in use globally, which travel 50,000 to 100,000 miles each per year.

186.Fuel consumption for buses is between seven and nine miles per gallon.

187.Medium and heavy duty trucks consume about 25% of the transportation sector’s total fuel consumption.

188.Medium and heavy duty trucks are used for freight transport and delivery and average between 50,000 and 100,000 miles each per year at a fuel efficiency of four to ten miles per gallon. Most of these vehicles run on diesel fuel.

189.Estimates of light duty vehicles hybrid’s penetration of the market vary widely from the International Energy Agency’s estimate of 0.7% by 2030, to some industry analyst’s estimate of 72% by 2030.

190.The International Energy Agency estimates fuel efficiency in 2030 of light duty vehicles to be 25 miles per gallon, while some industry analysts foresee 62 miles per gallon in 2030.

191.While today’s hybrids are more fuel efficient than existing vehicles, the future will see plug-in hybrids that are even more efficient, with some estimates of 50% greater fuel efficiency than standard hybrids.

192.Forty percent (40%) of Americans travel 20 miles or less per day for work, school and personal needs, and sixty percent (60%) travel 30 miles or less per day.

193.The traditional problem with electric vehicles and hybrids have been the cost, size, life and storage capacity of the batteries.

194.In today’s hybrid vehicles, the battery pack, cooling system and battery control unit represent 30% to 50% of the total cost of the vehicle.

195.The dominant battery system used today in hybrids is the nickel metal hydride battery, rather than the lead acid auto battery. Nickel metal hydride batteries have twice the energy density and three times the power density of lead acid batteries, and a much lower environmental impact.

196. Energy density of a battery affects the vehicle’s potential range. Power density of a battery affects the ability to accelerate.

197. Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries are the next generation of batteries and have greater energy density than nickel batteries and greater power density.

198. While automobile companies contend that batteries are holding back the hybrid revolution, the U.S. Department of Energy hs deemed both NiMH batteries and Li-ion batteries to be “mature” and researchers have demonstrated their application in hybrid vehicles..

199. Unlike NiMH batteries, lithium technology is not controlled by one company, and lithium can be combined with a variety of other compunds to produce batteries.

200. The future of American transportation will be the plug in hybrid that runs on a combination of electricity and alternaive fuel, not gasoline..

201. Plug-in hybrids generate 40-65% less greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline fueled vehicles and 7-45% less than conventional hybrids.

202. Transporting freight by rail is approximately 8 times more fuel efficient than trucking.

203. Rail is the cheapest form of transportation for freight as well as passengers (with the exception of two wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles).

204. Switching freight from diesel powered trucks to electric rail could result in a savings of as much as 20 to 1.

205. Most railways in Europe and Japan are electric.

206. The French railroads have not used one drop of oil to power their trains in the last twenty years.

207. Only four U.S. cities still have an electric trolley system: San Francisco, Boston,

Dayton and Seattle. Between 1922 and 1955, General Motors, Standard Oil and Firestone bought streetcar systems in 80 cities, dismatnled them, and replaced them with buses.

208. Hydrogen is never found unattached to something else, it is naturally bound to other elements.

209. Energy must be used to separate hydrogen so that it can be used as a fuel.

210. We have not yet solved all of the technical problems of generation, transportation, storage and consumption of hydrogen on a large scale.

211. Hydrogen fuel cells are electrochemical devices like batteries. Fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity without combustion.

212. As long as hydrogen and oxygen are available, hydrogen fuel cells never lose their charge, unlike batteries.

213. There are two common methods of producing usable hydrogen today: electrolysis and steam reformation.

214. Electrolysis uses electricity to extract hydrogen from water.

215. Steam reformation uses steam to create hydrogen from natural gas.

216. Electrolysis presently uses more energy to free the hydrogen than it creates.

217. Steam reformation is an expensive process and has the unattractive feature of using natural gas, another fossil fuel that has finite limitations, and produces carbon dioxide emissions.

218. Hydrogen is the smallest element and therefore is very difficult to contain.

Storage is a major issue with hydrogen gas, as it will find a way to escape. Tanks, particularly where they connect, will leak.

219. Another problem with hydrogen is its reactive nature. Hydrogen has a corrosive effect upon metal and tends to make metal brittle.

220. Building the required infrastructure for hydrogen in the U.S alone has been estimated to cost $600 billion.

221. Due to the problems of storing and transporting hydrogen, it is probably better suited for production and use on a single site as opposed being used in vehicles.

222. One company as created a residential fuel cell technology that produces hydrogen which is then converted into electricity and heat, and used on site to provide hot water and electricity needs to a home.

223. Replacing America’s vehicles with hydrogen powered vehicles, even if possible, would require not only replacement of 210 million vehicles, but hundreds of thousand of miles of pipeline, about 90,000 service station pumps and everything else related to generation, transportation and storage.

224. Nuclear reactors use Uranium 235 as fuel.

225. Uranium 235 represents less than 1% of all uranium on earth.

226. In nuclear energy plants, a chain reaction is generated that breaks the Uranium atoms releasing heat.

235  The heat generated by the reaction is used to turn water into steam and the steam is then used to turn a turbine and create electricity.

227. Approximately 6% of the energy produced in the world comes from nuclear power.

228. About 75% of the power used in France is generated by nuclear reactors, making it the nation that is most dependent upon nuclear power.

229. About 11% of the energy generated in the U.S. comes from nuclear power.

230. China has announced plans to build 32 nuclear plants by 2020.

231. There are a little over 400 nuclear reactors in the world today, with about 100 of these operating in the United States.

232. Many reactors are reaching the end of their useful life and were not designed to operate indefinitely.

233. Uranium demand is expected to increase 3% annually through 2018, and demand is expected to outstrip supply during that period.

234. There are presently about 100 nuclear power plants either in planning or under construction.

235. It has been estimated that simply to replace existing capacity, that the replacement ratio requires building at least two reactors per year for the next 50 years.

236. The ability to bring nuclear reactors online is limited by specialized building materials, skilled labor and the lengthy approval process involved.

237. Obtaining approval to build a nuclear reactor in the United States takes between 20 and 30 years.

238. Nuclear power is further limited in the United States by a lack of desire by American communities to have a reactor built nearby and by the security risks inherent in storing and using nuclear material.

CHAPTER TWELVE - CARBON CONTROL SYSTEMS

239. There are two major approaches to reducing our dependence on fossil fuel while simultaneously responding to the challenge of global warming.

240. The first approach is called “cap and trade” which is a system for emissions trading.

241. Under the cap and trade system a government agency sets a cap or maximum on the amount of emissions that are allowed to be generated. Businesses that emit carbon dioxide are allowed a certain limit that they cannot exceed without being penalized in some way.

242. For companies that reduce their emissions below the limit allowed, carbon credits are created which equal the unused portion of their allowance.

243. Efficient companies can sell their carbon credits to companies having trouble meeting their emission standards.

244. The effect of this system is to give an incentive to clean renewable energy companies and to provide a penalty to the polluters.

245. A popular type of carbon credit is the Renewable Energy Credit (REC) also called “green tags.” Green tags represent 1000 kWh of clean renewable energy and can be sold in the open market.

246. The other approach to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel is a carbon tax.

247. The carbon tax approach is simply to implement a tax on the burning of fossil fuel based on its carbon content.

248.Proponents of the carbon tax believe that a tax would crate an immediate incentive to reduce carbon emissions, would be less complicated than cap and trade, would be easier to administer, and would apply to all industries and not be as focused on the utility companies, like cap and trade.

249. Carbon trading markets have been created in the United States and Europe, although they are presently voluntary systems.

250. There are presently a variety of systems and no standardization has yet been created, so there is no one system that has been adopted by all users.

251. While carbon emissions trading is still developing and struggling to finf a system that is acceptable on a universal basis, it is the fastest growing specialty in the financial services area.

252. Analysts have stated that carbon will be the world’s biggest commodity market in a decade.

SUMMARY

In this publication, I have set forth a series of basic facts and information, from which you can draw your own conclusions. At this point however, I will list a series of my own opinions, ideas and conclusions based on those facts.

253. The New Energy Paradigm is a Chinese buffet. There is no one solution to the energy situation that the world faces today. There are multiple alternatives and combinations of various alternatives that will be used by innovative people to meet the challenge that faces us.

254. The biggest short term emergency is the liquid fuels market.

255. Repeat after me “Energy Independence is a national security issue.” Stick it to the terrorists, stop buying foreign oil.

256. Automobile companies contend that there is no market for hybrids or electric cars. The marketplace has demonstrated otherwise. GM's introduction of the Chevy Volt appears to me to be just Detroit's method of appeasing its critics by offering a small, expensive specialty car while conducting business as usual. The other “hollow hybrids” offered by Detroit are nothing more than greenwashing.

Simultaneously with the release of the Volt, GM is relasing the new, big gasoline engine Camaro, proof that they still don't get the message.

257. The government offered a limited tax advantage to purchasers of hybrid vehicles. The limited amount of this incentive prevented most hybrid purchasers from getting any tax incentive at all. This, or a similar incentive, needs to be expanded immediately.

258. The auto companies will soon come to Congress looking for a bailout. The answer should be “maybe, but only if you change all of your models to plug-in hybrids.”

259. A vehicle that delivers over 100 miles per gallon of gasoline is achievable with existing technology. A lightweight, but strong composite material, plug-in hybrid would use electric power for its local, daily trips of under thirty miles, which accounts for 60% of the average American’s daily usage. If Americans drove plugin hybrids, they would rarely use gasoline for their daily driving. The gasoline could even be replaced by biodiesel or ethanol.

260. Electricity storage through advanced battery technology has become a reality today. Improvements to the technology as being made constantly.

261. Electricity generated for consumption on site, (primarliy by wind and solar) referred to as decentralized electricity, or distributed electricity (as opposed to centralized electricity) will become more widespread as regulatory hurdles are overcome.

262. Efficiency is a key ingredient in the mix, and there also need to be tax incentives for individuals who add more insulation to their homes and take action to retrofit existing structures to be more energy efficient. Some power companies presently provide small rebates, but additional assistance needs to be given to individuals and businesses.

263. A simple, but effective, thing that every person can do is to change from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). CFLs use only about 20% of the electricity as incandescent lights and last 8,000-15,000 hours versus 1,000 hours for an incandescent light. The Department of Energy says that incandescent lights use about 10% of the electricity consumed in the U.S. today. CFLs make sense economically and energy wise.

264. As we discussed above, China has a population of more than four times that of the United States, representing 20% of the world population, compared to 4.5% for the United States. A person in China consumes 1/6 of the oil consumed by aperson in the United States. China’s oil consumption is increasing by 10% per year. Factoring in the 1.1 billion population of India, or approximately 17% of the world population and even assuming an unlimited supply of crude oil, oil production facilities are simply incapable of keeping up with growing demand.

265. China is everywhere. China produces the most coal in the world. China manufactures more wind turbines than any other country. China consumes more oil than any other country except the U.S., and that will change shortly. While the Congress and the State of Florida debate offshore drilling near the Florida coast, China is planning to drill for oil in the area between Florida and Cuba. China is a major owner of one of the largest seaports on the Eastern Seaboard (Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas). China is everywhere, and it will only get worse.

266. According to the Energy Information Administration, world electricity generation will need to double by 2030. To satisfy this need, we must add more solar and wind power, not coal fired power plants.

267. There will be government intervention and gasoline rationing in the United States in the near future.

268. Many American households will own an NEV (Neighborhood Electrical Vehicle) in the near future. Vehicles such as “street legal’ golf carts will become commonplace.

269. I have seen it stated many times that for every dollar spent to improve efficiencyof appliances and buildings, you would have to spend $9 on solar power to achieve the same thing. Efficiency is a key ingredient of our future sustainable energy lifestyle. Through the use of efficiencies using “green retrofit” on existing buildings, the U.S. could cut electricity consumption and carbon emissions in half within 20 years.

270. Carbon taxes would be difficult to implement in the U.S. since Americans hate taxes and even hate the word “tax.” Remember that “tax” is the reason why we don’t sing God Save the Queen in America today.

271. The solar plan presented in the January 2008 issue of Scientific American, or a similar plan, needs to be implemented as soon as possible.

272. Most Americans do not realize that solar is a viable energy source. Solar technology since the 1970s has advanced far beyond what people think. The best analogy would be that if you told someone they could fly across the Atlantic in an airplane, and they had only seen the Wright Brothers’ first airplane, they would dismiss you comment and think you were crazy. People need to understand that today’s solar technology is a Boeing 757 compared to the “Wright Brothers” solar technology of the 1970s. Solar works and we need it now. Congress must pass more tax incentives for solar power and the states must pass state legislation similar to the incentives used by Germany.

273. Early versions of the “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007” contained a substantial incentive for residential solar power, with a 30% tax credit available. The prior incentive, a 30% tax credit with a $2,000 cap, was not even reinstated in the final version. No incentive whatsoever for solar was included in the new law, and even the minimum incentives of the old law expire at the end of 2008.

274. A number of states are studying the incentives for solar power that were implemented in Germany and are crafting proposed legislation that is being introduced into state legislatures. Once the first few states implement these laws, many others will follow and America will start to see some the benefits of solar power. Utility companies are primarily regulated by states as opposed to the federal government, so we may not have to wait for Congress to act to get some beneficial activity in the solar power area.

275. I am not a big fan of government intervention in anything, but unfortunately, at this point, without tax incentives and subsidies, we cannot solve the largest economic problem this country has ever faced. Whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not, there will be substantial government intervention. The later that intervention comes, the more drastic it will be.

276. Hydrogen technology will not be sufficiently developed in time to avert the crisis. There may be a hydrogen economy in our future, but it will not be in our short term future.

277. It is now mid-2008. You will live in a different world in five years. Will it be a world of war, terrorism and chaos based on an economic energy crisis? Or will it be a world that has addressed its energy needs and begun to deal with the problem? The decision is yours.

I stood on the beach near Canaveral Pier in Cocoa Beach and watched the launch of Apollo 11 in July of 1969. I felt the earth shake under the thunderous roar of the Saturn V rocket as it left the earth on that beautiful sunny day in Florida. A few days later, sitting

in the living room of a friend on Key Biscayne with the young girl who would later become my wife, we watched as Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on a celestial body other than the earth. Those were heady times in America. Years later, I finally realized how difficult this task was and how brave men like Neil Armstrong were, when I learned that the onboard computer of the Lunar Excursion Module had less computing power than the Macintosh computer released by Apple in 1981. At that time, the Mac seemed like nothing more than a toy. What audacity John F. Kennedy had to set a goal of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to earth within a mere decade. Such a feat was hard to comprehend in 1960, when very few people even had air conditioning in their homes or cars, and no one even had a color television.

As Americans living through those times, we know that we are capable of accomplishing any goal, no matter how daunting. I know that America can meet this challenge, because I have seen her do it. The issue is not our ability, but our focus. We are at our best under pressure, and necessity is truly the mother of invention. We all need to encourage our local, state and federal officials to join the grassroots movement, and provide incentives, just as they have done for industries like telecommunications, farming and, of course, the oil companies. Together we can meet the challenge.

SOLAR RADIATION COMPARISON BETWEEN GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES

When you compare the two images below, you quickly see the enormous difference in the amount of solar radiation (which translates into solar power efficiency) between the United States and Germany. The highest amount of solar radiation in Germany equates to the lowest amount of solar radiation in the United States, yet Germany has more installed PV systems than any other country, and purchases one-half of all of the solar panels manufactured in the world.